


Skull Town.

by janboy



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 04:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18161468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janboy/pseuds/janboy
Summary: Bloodhound leads two fresh-faced contenders in the Apex Games.





	Skull Town.

The interior of the dropship consisted of quiet conversation; hushed whispers from groups of three made up meticulous conversation. Plans upon plans, structured procedures and outcomes for what would come to follow in the next handful of minutes.

Planned-procedure and battle were antonyms to Bloodhound. Unpredictability was the fuel from which the Apex Games were driven by. Adaptability was the only gift from the Allfather's will that reached those who listened. It was the skill that brought Bloodhound such success in this gauntlet of legends.

Bloodhound's footfalls were near silent on the stainless steel of the ship. All the contenders were placed in the hold of the ship, and the loading doors would eventually open for them to leap into the fray. Some people sat on the foldable seats built into the walls of the hold, strapped in tightly with a white-knuckle grip on the handles to either side. Others, the more seasoned fighters, stood or walked about the hold with sureness in their step. Some of them nodded to Bloodhound as they walked past. Bloodhound rose their left arm and rotated it so that the underside of their forearm came into their vision. Placed into their glove was a rectangular device. On the surface of the device was a digital screen with three separate pictures stacked into a vertical list. At the top of the list was a headshot of Bloodhound themself. Below them, was young man and woman. To the right of the pictures was three separate bars, tracking heart-rates and vital signs of his squad-mates.

With the faces of the other two refreshed in their mind, Bloodhound weaved through the throng of sixty people in the hold until they eventually came to find the pair. They were part of the people who sat strapped into the seats along the walls. As Bloodhound approached, the woman nudged the man sitting beside her. He snapped his eyes open and whipped his head towards the woman first, then towards Bloodhound. Bloodhound could see beads of sweat already beginning to trail down both their temples.

With each gust of turbulence that sent a tremor through the hull of the airship, Bloodhound watched as their fingers squeezed the handles of their seat.

"What are your names?" Bloodhound asked, dropping to a knee before the duo.

"Nialla," the woman responded, "and this is my brother Rex."

Rex nodded. His eyes shifted from Bloodhound to somewhere over their shoulder. He seemed to stare at the others within the hold, a mixture of both awe and fear in his eyes.

"This is our first time in the games," Rex muttered, finally breaking his silence.

Bloodhound nodded their head in return and slowly lowered a hand to the floor of the hold. There was a constant low rumble that came from the ship's engine. The rumble was like thunder, a distant reminder that the Allfather's presence was always there. With their hand pressed to the floor, Bloodhound felt the speed of the ship pick up. Their arrival was imminent, their departure from the heavens would come soon.

There was no room for the fearful or the unwilling within the games.

Bloodhound rose their head and first looked towards Rex. They reached a hand out and wrapped it about one of Rex's that was holding onto the strap.

"I am Bloodhound." Bloodhound squeezed Rex's hand, then slowly coaxed it to release the death-grip which he had on the strap.

"Through the guidance of the gods, I will lead us to victory on this day."

Bloodhound kept their eyes locked on Rex's, who could only see the grey-black of their googles looking back at him. That fear still lingered in Rex's eyes, but Bloodhound's voice and presence seemed to quell some of those shakes that they felt in Rex's hand. After a silent minute, Rex nodded his head. Bloodhound rose to their feet and slowly they undid Rex's harness,

"To be restrained is to throw away your life," Bloodhound said. Rex nodded again, and with shaky legs, he rose out of his seat and stood before Bloodhound. Bloodhound could hear the slight quickness in his breaths, but there was a newfound determination in his demeanor that was promising.

Bloodhound turned their head to Nialla now, and she was already in the process of undoing her harness. Bloodhound clasped hands with her and she rose to her feet, a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Steel yourself," Bloodhound whispered, "Be unbreakable, and your enemies will cower before you."

The moment was disturbed when a firm voice rang out through the intercom, declaring that the island was only minutes away and final preparations should be made. Bloodhound glanced out the circular window that was just beside Nialla, and they saw the mixture of desert, mountain, and jungle terrain that made up the battlefield. Bloodhound stepped away from the window so that Rex and Nialla could take in their destination.

While others around Bloodhound started chants of encouragement, of both glory for themselves and for their enemies, Bloodhound's eyes closed and they muttered a number of silent prayers to the gods above.

_'Guide my hand so I may strike true.'_

_'Guide my mind so I may think clearly.'_

_'Guide my heart so I may fight only for you.'_

The intercom of the ship came to life once more. This time, it was the beginning of a thirty-second countdown. Bloodhound opened their eyes. The thrill of imminent battle already began to flow through their veins. Glory was within the grasp of all those who participated, but only the willing and driven were strong enough to grasp their hands about it. With a pat on the sides of their arms, Bloodhound roused the siblings and motioned with their hand for Rex and Nialla to follow.

"Come."

Twenty-seconds till the doors opened. The other squads began to move about. Some did stretches, others remained nonchalantly in their seats, while others walked towards the departure doors to be the first ones out. It was there that Bloodhound's boots were taking them.

"The ship crosses the whole island, right? Why don't we wait till near the end?" Rex called out from behind, his head looking to and fro at all the people and the handful of robots in their midst.

"To wait for battle is to wait for death," Bloodhound responded.

Ten seconds now. As Bloodhound walked through the throng of people, some gave way to their presence while others purposefully shoved their shoulders into Bloodhound. Bloodhound paid them no mind, and eventually, with the final five seconds counting down, Bloodhound, Rex, and Nialla reached the bay doors.

"We will embrace the battle, and pray that the battle embraces us in return."

At the exact moment which Bloodhound finished speaking, the dropship door swung open and a powerful gust of wind greeted those waiting at the edge. Without a moment's hesitation, Bloodhound took that final step off of the edge and began to plummet downwards. Nialla shoved with both hands into her brother's back and that sent the both of them over the edge. Rex's constant screams accentuating his descent, and Nialla's laughter trailed hers.

Bloodhound turned their body in the air, angling themself into a nose-dive with their arms tightly held at the sides and their legs together to the points. They made a beeline directly below them, and what came into view was a sprawling series of buildings, some only a single story high while others were taller, industrial style buildings. All around the area was blindingly bright sand, reflecting the dazzling rays of the sun above them, and ringed by the massive bones of some ancient and massive beast.

Skull Town.

* * *

 

Even with the rushing wind, the headsets that each squad member was given still captured and transmitted audio with clarity. No expense was spared with the Games, and some of the technology on display was truly remarkable.

Bloodhound angled their body in the air to fall towards the southern area of Skull Town, with the longest stretch of connected buildings that often led to dangerous and constant close-quarters combat.

"There!" Bloodhound said, extending their left hand to point towards the southern tip.

With the point and by pressing a button on the side of their glove, Bloodhound pinged the location which they would be dropping. That sent a beep into their own and the headsets of their squad-mates, and pinpointed that position on that communicative device that was in the underside of their forearm. A yellow diamond highlighted the pinged location on the device which doubled as an expandable map of the island itself.

"Roger that Captain!" Bloodhound heard Nialla respond.

"Y-Yeah!" Rex's voice was shaky, Bloodhound turned their head to see Rex further up in the air, tumbling and failing at trying to hold a composed dive, "I'll try and fall there!"

Another handful of seconds passed and the ground was rapidly approaching. The thrusters provided to each participant sparked to life at a certain distance from the ground, and the speed of Bloodhound's descent came to a more manageable landing. Bloodhound gave one final scan as the distance between themself and the ground closed from hundreds of feet to a mere fifty, and they saw numerous others landing in scattered parts throughout Skull Town. Some on the higher industrial areas, while others were only a few hundred feet north of Bloodhound. The more bloodthirsty legends were already scrapping with one another on the descent. Their falling trails were intertwined, twisting and turning while exchanging blows in mid-air.

With sand whipping against their gear, Bloodhound finally touched down and instantly entered a sprint. The doorway into the building complex that lead towards the heart of Skull Town was ahead, and Bloodhound lowered their shoulder and barged into it. Within the first room was a white-grey chest plate, a box of red shotgun shells, and a single weapon. Bloodhound ran towards the chest plate first and ran their hand through it. At their gesture, the chest plate seemed to fizzle out in a display of crystal white particles, before it poured across Bloodhound's extended arm and covered their body. For a moment, Bloodhound was covered in a set of white pixelated armor, before the stark color seemed to fade out of view. On the display of their forearm, above Bloodhound's vitals was now a slim rectangular block of grey. The durability of their body armor.

_'Level one, it's better than nothing.'_

Bloodhound swept their hand over the box of shotgun shells, and those too phased out of view. Each contender in the games was given an _'Item-Nullifier-Vehicle'_ , commonly referred to as an **INV**. The INV was utilized by tiny, phasing devices implanted into gloves. This meant that any items picked up within the island was sent through phasing into a container unique to each contender, and they need only to think about the item that they wished to retrieve from their INV, and it would phase back into their hands. Bloodhound had sixteen shotgun shells, and with a deep scowl on their face, they picked up the only weapon within the room and loaded three bullets into it.

"A Mozambique," Bloodhound muttered beneath their breath, "Is this another test, Allfather?"

The response that they heard was a chorus of screams, gunfire, and explosions, echoing through the air from further within Skull Town. Bloodhound continued ahead with the Mozambique poised before them, and they opened the doorway leading into a connecting hallway to another building. As soon as Bloodhound opened the next door, bullets ricocheted off the tight walls and whistled past their head. Bloodhound rolled forward and instantly returned with shots of their own.

The bullets spread past the muzzle like confetti. More bullets came from down the hallway, and Bloodhound pressed their back against the wall, just barely keeping their body from being within their crosshairs. Bloodhound clicked open the Mozambique, opened their left hand and another three bullets phased into their palm. They jammed the bullets into the gun and cocked it once more, now inching to their right, closer to the opening of the hallway. Before peeking their head out, Bloodhound's ears perked up from within their helmet and they simply listened. Barely, beneath the howling desert winds outside of the building, and the chaos that was in full swing outside, Bloodhound heard heavy breathing, just ahead, pressed to the wall on the other side of them.

Bloodhound bent their knees slightly, gathering up the power in their legs, and they propelled themselves into a low roll forwards, past the threshold of the open hallway and coming up to their knees instantly with the Mozambique drawn. The shots from their foe went right over their rolling form, and Bloodhound fired three shots, point blank, into their enemies' chest. There was a strangled cry as the bullets connected, and the shotgun shells of the Mozambique clattered to the floor.

But, the man in the corner, bleeding, was still standing. Just as the man was about to turn the EVA-8 in his hands to fire again, Bloodhound reared their right hand back and threw the Mozambique at his face. The gun collided and smashed right into the man's nose. Blood gushed from his nostrils and he recoiled into the corner, his left hand still squeezed the trigger but the bullets flew harmlessly to the side. Bloodhound seized the advantage and dipped their shoulder to barrel right into the man's chest. They heard his head smash into the metal wall behind him, and the EVA-8 fell from his grip and onto the ground. Bloodhound drove their fist into his gut, and then drew their knife to plunge it directly into his chest.

"Go with honor." Bloodhound muttered, leaving their knife plunged into the man's chest until his rapidly weakening struggle ceased entirely.

The man crumbled to the ground and also phased from existence. Where his corpse would've been, a large, coffin-sized metal box appeared. Bloodhound threw the box open and picked up the EVA-8 that the man had been using. Bloodhound also collected the extra shotgun shells, and the helmet he had. With a satisfying click, Bloodhound loaded the round drum of the EVA-8 with bullets, slid the pump beneath it in place, and they kicked open the third doorway which now opened up into a clearing within the center of Skull Town. Some iron-clad stairs led up to either side of the three, tall, industrial buildings in the center, with narrow hallways and open walkways around the base of all three.

People dashed to and fro from both up above and down below, smoke of black and grey mixed with the constant breeze made up the air, and Bloodhound took a sharp left and dropped into a full sprint.

"Check your maps," Bloodhound said as they glanced down to their device, "We are spread thin."

Rex and Nialla's blips were down the street. Bloodhound looked ahead and saw that the doorways of the building they were holed up in were already thrown wide open, the outside walls littered with bullet-holes and shattered glass.

"We need help!" Rex cried through the communicator.

"We're pinned down Captain! Three of them are on us!"

"I'm on the way."

A whistling noise, sharper than any bullets that Bloodhound heard so far, pierced through the air and sank into their shoulder blade. The audio in their communicator was filled with crackling, like glass being crushed, the sound of armor being broken. Fire ripped through Bloodhound's right shoulder and the sheer power behind the projectile sent them tumbling forward through the sand and Bloodhound angled their body to fall behind a handful of steel barrels as cover.

Bloodhound could feel blood pouring out of their back, and Bloodhound slowly pushed back up to their feet, crouched, and still looking straight ahead towards Rex and Nialla's location. From there, Bloodhound could see through the broken windows the faces of Rex and Nialla on the upper level. Armed, thankfully, and firing back and people on the floor beneath. Bloodhound gave a quick glance to the device on their glove. The vitals of Rex and Nialla were showing some wear and tear, but they had found armor at least. Bloodhound's own signs were strained, but functioning, their own armor broken completely after that one shot. With a face contorted behind their helmet, wincing in pain, Bloodhound squeezed the handle of the Eva and inhaled deeply.

One, two, three.

Bloodhound pushed off of their cover and sprinted across the open terrain. They heard another loud crack of a sniper bullet being fired, and Bloodhound dropped to their knees in a slide. The air above their helmet was ripped as the bullet sailed overhead, just by a handful of inches. Another crack, and Bloodhound had just barely reached the outside of the building and ran towards the back, the bullet buried itself into the metal exterior a foot behind Bloodhound. Silently, Bloodhound inched along the back wall of the building. Gunfire continued within, louder now. One of the busted windows was coming up along the wall, and Bloodhound lowered into a crouch just beside the window.

"I'm outside," Bloodhound whispered, "Once I give the word, start firing."

The strained, but calm voice of Nialla responded, "Got it."

Bloodhound inhaled deeply from their nostrils. They placed the EVA-8 against the wall of the building momentarily as their right hand flicked open a small metal latch that was on the topside of their left forearm. There were four buttons beneath the cover. One was an orange circle on the left side, and the other three were dark red and triangular, forming a small pyramid on the right side of it. Bloodhound's finger hesitated over the three red buttons, but then shifted to hover over the orange circle.

"Fire!"

A sudden, loud, burst of gunfire came from inside the building, coupled with resounding roars from both Rex and Nialla. Bloodhound pressed the orange circle and a pulse of orange light formed at their mask, and then fanned out in a dome-shape around them. Orange pixels revealed the five people within the building, their outlines and movements highlighted through walls and pieces of cover, and then the return fire from the squad below Rex and Nialla rushed into Bloodhound's ears. Bloodhound grabbed their weapon, pumped the EVA-8, and vaulted through the window.

A blast of buckshot sprayed directly into the back of the head of the woman just to Bloodhound's right. They didn't even look in her direction before firing. She fell to the ground instantly, bleeding and weapon clattering to the floor. Bloodhound brought the shotgun back across their body and fired towards the stairway. Once, twice, and a third time before the other man tumbled onto his back in a heap. The third man, Bloodhound saw a flash of bright-blonde hair, and suddenly five other men appeared within the interior of the first level. Each of them moving, weapons held in different poses and running off in different directions. Bloodhound pumped the EVA-8 again, and ran purposefully towards the clump of men. The orange sweep from their scan revealed each as a hostile detected, but Bloodhound's senses were sharper than the tricks that Mirage could pull.

Bloodhound's boots now had a quiet squeak to them with the blood that coated the ground, and they walked past the deployed diversions without firing a single bullet at them. The interior of the building was near silent, save for the projections all around Bloodhound which mimicked Mirage's voice and run off in different directions in an effort to throw Bloodhound off of his tail. Some of the projections ran through the open doorways, vaulted through the windows, or crumpled to the ground in mock gunshot wounds. Bloodhound was unfazed, they ignored the cheers that came from Rex and Nialla from above and continued forward.

Instead, Bloodhound's ears perked up again at the slightest, near indiscernible noise that came from the collapsed crates and closets in the corner of the room. Bloodhound approached one of them, a wooden closet on its side and rested against the floor. Bloodhound could hear the sound of something metal being pressed to the closet door from within, Bloodhound could also hear the slightest sounds of breath leaving nostrils inside.

Instead of opening the door, Bloodhound pressed the EVA-8's barrel against the wide of the closet, roughly at arm level, then Bloodhound fired. Wood splintered from the blast, a yelp of pain came from within, as did the sound of a weapon being dropped. Then Bloodhound kicked the closet onto its back and pulled the two doors open.

"Ah, damn, why did it have to be you, that helmet really creeps me out."

Bleeding profusely from his arm and hand, Mirage blinked up at Bloodhound with his wingman now at his feet and a weak smile on his lips. Bloodhound dropped the EVA-8 and grabbed the front of Mirage's suit with their left hand, bringing his face close to their own.

"That trick usually works on everyone, what's your secret? Mind-reader?" Mirage gasped, whether it be from the pain of his wound or as part of his act, Bloodhound didn't know, "are you reading my thoughts right now? What am I thinking? How about if you guess wrong you let me go and if you're right I--"

Bloodhound drew their knife again and plunged it into Mirage's side. Twice, between the ribs.

"You're clever," Bloodhound said softly, cleaning their blade on Mirage's sleeve and gently lowering him to the ground, "But I am a hunter, and holograms don't have heartbeats."

One final chuckle came from Mirage's lips before he was phased out and replaced by his INV, and Bloodhound whistled Rex and Nialla down.

"Take what you need from them, we still have much work to do."

Bloodhound walked up the stairway and looked to the west as Rex and Nialla began to go through the boxes. In the distance, beyond the ocean that surrounded the entire island, Bloodhound say a rapidly approaching wall of bright orange light. The ring was coming soon, and they needed to be on the move before being caught outside of it.

Bloodhound recharged their shields and used syringes to bring their vitals back to a stable state, then they pushed open the door and led Rex and Nialla back into the heart of Skull Town.


End file.
